As established downtown nightspots like the Dame and Mia's prepare to close or move to make way for new development on East Main, a cluster of new drinking establishments are soon hoping to see another door open - in the form of a thriving nightlife scene at Victorian Square.
A new Brazilian-themed bar and grill, Devassa, has leased the former first-floor location of Spice clothing store facing Triangle Park on Main Street and is currently refitting the space to open next month, offering drinks, grill fare and live music. An upscale neighborhood bar and lounge called the Chase, with a projected opening date of June 1, will replace the recently vacated Hutchinson's Drug Store on the corner of Broadway and Short Street, and as of press time, another upscale bar concept aimed at Lexington's professional crowd was finalizing its lease for the lower level space adjoining the main atrium, formerly occupied by the tasting room for Equus Run.
When it comes to jumpstarting the nightlife in the downtown mall, the timing couldn't be better, according to the business owners and Victorian Square management. While the clustering was not intentional, the operators hope the new energy created by the businesses will allow them to feed off of each other while filling a significant gap for the local entertainment scene.
To build on the momentum, Victorian Square is exploring the possibility of pursuing entertainment destination zoning for the building, said Becky Reinhold, president of the Victorian Square Association, in addition to planning more live entertainment and special events for its main atrium space. Among other benefits, an entertainment destination zoning would allow patrons to carry open containers between bars within Victorian Square premises, but current legislation in Kentucky restricts the zoning designation to Class 1 cities, like Louisville.
"In the last six months, we've been looking at ways to increase traffic at Victorian Square, and this is very exciting," Reinhold said. At the same time, Reinhold said, the mall's management has been taking care to ensure that new initiatives will also serve the interests of their long-term retail tenants.
The three new businesses planned for Victorian Square could help give rise to a new hub for Lexington's night economy, said Tom Martin, who heads the downtown entertainment task force established by Vice Mayor Jim Gray.
"From the business standpoint, it responds to the need to cluster small businesses in one location so they can benefit from each other's traffic," Martin said. "The architecture is also very much in keeping with what many envision downtown Lexington should look like."
Victorian Square's close proximity to the crowd-generating entertainment venues of the Lexington Opera House, Rupp Arena and the Lexington Convention Center make it a natural fit for a vibrant night business, Martin said.
"It is ideally located to capture all that pedestrian traffic," Martin said. "It also has parking, which makes it accessible and usable by people who don't necessarily live downtown, but like to come to the downtown area in the evening for entertainment."
A taste of Brazil
Devassa is the brainchild of Bob Douglas, a scientist who has specialized in veterinary diagnostic endocrinology in both Lexington and Rio De Janiero, along with his partner and Devassa manager, Lauren Bentley.
In addition to his local interests in veterinary diagnostics and pharmaceuticals, Douglas has owned a veterinary diagnostic laboratory in Brazil for the past eight years and fell in love with the bars of cities like Rio de Janiero and Buenos Aires during his travels.
"In any big city, the bar environment is a big part of the culture," Douglas said. "Brazilians are fun-loving people. ... They like to eat and drink and talk and socialize and dance and enjoy good music, and that's what we want to try to have here."
Devassa's offerings won't be strictly Brazilian, Douglas said, but he does plan to offer some specialty drinks and dishes from the region. While Douglas wants Devassa to give locals the opportunity to experience different types of music, he also said he plans to support the local music scene.
"There needs to be a lot more support for the music scene than there is," Douglas said. "We're going to do as much as we can to support live music and different kinds of music."
Devassa's offerings will range from soft jazz or acoustic music at happy hour to more lively bands during the late night hours, to appeal to a wide variety of age groups throughout the evening, Douglas said. Eventually, Douglas hopes to see Devassa offering patrons free salsa and tango lessons during the week.
Regarding the other bar concepts looking to open in Victorian Square, Douglas said he hopes to see even more.
"I wish we had six or seven other bars and restaurants in that building," Douglas said. "It would make it much more viable and vibrant. It wouldn't be competition; it would augment everybody's business."
The Chase is on
Construction has begun on a new bar, The Chase, in the former location of Hutchinson's drug store. Operated by New Republic LLC, the bar will have an upscale lounge atmosphere designed to appeal to Lexington's professional set, according to a New Republic spokesperson. The projected opening date is June 1.
With the loss of the Dame and the growing number of restaurants on Limestone Avenue, the Chase's owners see Broadway and Short Street evolving into a natural destination for people making the rounds through Lexington's downtown nightlife - especially while construction of new downtown developments is underway over the next two or more years.
The Chase was originally planned for the Chevy Chase area, according to the owners, but the regulations were too restrictive. In addition to the opportunities presented by the possibility of entertainment destination zoning and the shifting downtown landscape, Victorian Square offered ample parking and the energy that comes from being only blocks away from Lexington's current entertainment center. The Chase intends to cater to different age levels during different evening hours, the owners said, and ultimately it hopes to distinguish itself as a bar that both locals and visitors will associate with Lexington.
A license to play
To Sean Sewell, the time is right for a Victorian Square renaissance.
With the new development slotted for the Rosenberg block and two other bars set to establish Victorian Square addresses, Sewell and his partners, who hope to open a downtown bar by June 1, believe Victorian Square is poised to capture a healthy amount of Lexington's nightlife activity.
"The (Rosenberg) block has got to move somewhere," Sewell said. "The people who are going downtown are still going to want to come downtown. They're not suddenly going to drive off to Hamburg or Nicholasville Road."
The biggest challenge for Sewell has been getting the liquor license to serve them.
"We are pretty much stuck in a holding pattern ourselves because, from what we hear from the ABC, there just aren't any liquor licenses left in Lexington and won't be until January of 2009," Sewell said.
Sewell and his partners were big fans of the Melodeon on Main Street, he said, and they are hoping to create a similar, comfortable feeling with their own bar in the lower level of Victorian Square. Right now, however, the only liquor licenses to be had must be bought on the open market, where Sewell has heard of businesses paying up to $15,000 in Lexington. It makes it difficult for a small bar like that envisioned by Sewell to turn a profit, he said, but he and his partners are still moving forward with their plans.
"We're not looking to create the college, meat-market bar," said Sewell, a native of Jessamine County and a graduate of UK. "We're trying to play it to the broadest possible clientele. Ö We're trying to fill in everything that's been missing in Lexington."
While Sewell's business will be strictly a bar, he also wants to be part of the effort to support more live music downtown, including a wider variety of genres, including Bluegrass, blues and jazz.
For Martin, helping businesses like Sewell's to overcome obstacles to establishing their businesses is the entertainment task force's primary mission.
"The overriding challenge right now is first and foremost to break the logjam of available liquor licenses," said Martin, who also sees a need for better communication between would-be business owners and operators and the various government agencies involved in the start-up process.
The interest shown in creating a Victorian Square nightlife, Martin said, is a good start.
"I hope it doesn't stop there," Martin said. "We'd like to see that kind of energy spread all the way back up Main Street to the eastern end."